Posted on 11/10/2020 3:44:32 PM PST by Kaslin
Editor's Note: This column was authored by Colby Humphrey.
Pundits and policy wonks have noted the economic disparity between urban and rural America. Government data from 2019 shows 31 counties alone accounted for nearly one-third of national GDP growth. This disparity often plays into electoral politics. Remember Hillary Clinton’s infamous declaration? In 2016, Clinton said she won the “places moving forward” (i.e., coastal cities) while President Trump won the declining, rural parts of the country — the “backward” places.
But that economic disparity could shift if Republicans play their cards right.
The effects of COVID-19 on global supply chains are forcing public and private-sector leaders to rethink current manufacturing approaches. This reassessment provides Republicans a chance to pursue a rural manufacturing renaissance that could bring economic growth back to the parts of flyover country that desperately need it. Based on the 2020 election results, the GOP’s continued strength in these regions makes those communities all the more relevant.
The idea of reviving American manufacturing isn’t new. Policies and initiatives aimed at restoring the country’s manufacturing base have been in place for years. Yet the overall output and employment numbers in this area still lag behind those of previous decades.
What’s different this time is the urgency lawmakers should feel in revitalizing American manufacturing policy. While debates have raged over the costs and benefits of globalization, the current pandemic has revealed just how vulnerable the U.S. is to global disruptions. Such vulnerabilities point to American manufacturing policy failures that have left the country in a perilous position through much of 2020.
By pushing for rural manufacturing growth, Republicans could serve their constituents, bolstering the country’s security, and protect them from future shocks to the global supply chain. Rural America has been on the decline for decades: dwindling job prospects and stagnating wage growth has defined the scene. As manufacturers seek to boost domestic production, these regions are primed to reap the benefits.
To accomplish this, policymakers should focus on lifting the regulatory barriers in the way of a rural manufacturing boom. As noted by Mark Partridge with AEI, location-based policies, including “legal and regulatory constraints that reduce labor market flexibility such as onerous state occupational licenses and noncompete legal agreements,” are a particular problem. Reducing such barriers could propel the rural economy forward. A significant level of deregulation has already occurred throughout the pandemic, and policymakers should lean into these trends to boost rural manufacturing.
Federal policy could also be enacted in the 2021 congressional session. The pandemic has pushed many to call for a new manufacturing strategy. Republicans in Washington would be fools to neglect legislative action that benefits rural America. With Democrats retaining control of the House of Representatives, they are likely to chase “historic investments” in a host of areas, including advanced manufacturing. The GOP could leverage this preference and collaborate on a combination of direct investments and regulatory reforms in 2021 to boost the rural economy. While many on the right may be hesitant, this strategy may be worth pursuing as the projected minority party. Looming Senate elections in 2022 make such policies advantageous for Republicans in the upper chamber as well. Tying the need for manufacturing security to economic growth in rural America is a tailor-made strategy for the emerging Republican coalition.
While the U.S. continues to deal with the effects of COVID-19, the pandemic offers an opportunity to reevaluate America’s manufacturing priorities. The shortcomings of the rural economy in America won’t go away overnight. However, advancing American manufacturing by investing in declining counties could be the right place to start. As the GOP strengthens its rural base of support, policies that bolster manufacturing in rural areas could improve those residents’ lives and address the country’s manufacturing deficiencies moving forward.
Great concept, yet the areas of fly over country I am familiar with are mired in the twentieth century, deficient in human capital and infrastructure. Of course if you import assets, that tends to turn red areas blue.
They make dental floss in Montana. Check out Rome, Ga. They make Italian tires, Japanese all terrain vehicles, paper used to make card board boxes, and lots of other stuff. Their junior college has 2 year programs for bookeeping and accounting. Their technical school has classes for robotics technology. Their public schools have college prep as well as technology classes. Their private school serves the children of the foreign big wigs who are bosses at the foreign factories. Their motto is,”If you are willing to try, we have got a program path for you.” Placing a factory in the middle of no-where is probably not a good idea. Unless it is something simple like dental floss. To get better results, the factory needs to be near an Interstate Highway with a larger size town nearby. 15,000 to 30,000 city population. And if the factory makes say automotive steering wheels, the main automotive assembly plant would need to be properly near by to limit delivery costs.
They make dental floss in Montana...
Are you a Frank Zappa fan? He made a song about that.
Yep, I went to several Zappa concerts during the 1970s. I also went to see the Stones, Jethro Tull, Allman Brothers, Heart, Mountain, and a bunch of other bands. Still though, Zappa was a PHD of music and wrote every note. His absurdities and social satire were goofy and fun.
Rural areas in general are not full of people or infrastructure because they ARE rural areas-where food is grown and livestock raised to sell to city people to eat-the closest thing to a factory is the 18-wheeler your neighbor uses to haul stuff to cities-infrastructure not needed...
I live in a rural area-I was born in one, too-when I go do the tourist thing, I want a condo at the beach, a cabin in the woods or at the edge of the desert near a little settlement with local restaurants shops, etc-no city, thanks-too crowded, loud and unhealthy-no big box stores...
What the article suggests might work where you are from-but tourism is the biggest economic driver in the parts of rural Texas that are scenic areas, like this one-state wilderness parks, rivers, lakes, hills, desert parks, etc and all the little towns with tourist traps that go with it-even the hotels are locally owned here. Rural areas also grow the food and raise the livestock that shows up at the local grocery stores, butcher shops and farmers markets.
The snowbirds who spend their Winters here are not interested in a condo in a loud smelly city-they bring their money out here to book an RV space or a cabin in the woods/on the river for the Winter-they aren’t here to tour a manufacturing plant or factory or go to a mall-they are here for the absolute quiet in the middle of the natural world with the wildlife-they spend money at our local stores and farm-to-table restaurants, play at our golf courses, etc-there is a moratorium on commercial development in this county-and many others nearby-to protect our local businesses, natural resources, etc by limiting growth-just the opposite of what this article is promoting...
Right...tourist areas of naturally beautiful surroundings do not want factories. However, there are lots of small towns that are not very well blessed with natural resources such as lakes and mountains and beautiful scenery. Take a look at Boulder, Colorado. Beautiful scenery and lots of 21st Century industries. IBM, Bio-Tech, Aero-Space, Pharmaceuticals, and sports injury health care. The natural beauty of the Boulder Valley is a selling point to lure the college graduates from all over the country to relocate to Boulder. Sadly, most of them are Democrats. Yet, the town is incredible. Each local community has the right to try to shape its own destiny. Highly skilled workers do not want to live in the stinking desert.
And Colorado is welcome to them-Toyota and some other auto manufacturers have plants in the less scenic areas of Texas in small towns that aren’t on the tourist popular places list-there are biomedical research places in some cities-and of course quite a few military bases. Austin is full of highly skilled tech types-it is a mini-Seattle hellhole with homeless people doing drugs. harassing people and crapping on the street-we don’t need any more of that...
You can’t bring people from all over the country to any place without straining the natural resources like water and arable land-city people are wasteful for the most part and never think about where water or power or food actually comes from-they seem to think it is just magically there for them to use as they please-no one ever told them, so it isn’t totally their fault...
That college indoctrination really paid off!
Right...tourist areas of naturally beautiful surroundings do not want factories. However, there are lots of small towns that are not very well blessed with natural resources such as lakes and mountains and beautiful scenery. Take a look at Boulder, Colorado. Beautiful scenery and lots of 21st Century industries. IBM, Bio-Tech, Aero-Space, Pharmaceuticals, and sports injury health care. The natural beauty of the Boulder Valley is a selling point to lure the college graduates from all over the country to relocate to Boulder. Sadly, most of them are Democrats. Yet, the town is incredible. Each local community has the right to try to shape its own destiny. Highly skilled workers do not want to live in the stinking desert.
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Getting overrun by filthy H1B Indians. In whole subdivisions In Longmont, Niwot and North Boulder, that’s all you see with their 4 or 5 stinking kids, especially along CO119
Import tariffs. Lots of tariffs then get out of the way.
Waiting for the Free Traitors™ and anti tariff buffoons to tell us Americans can’t make anything here.
I had a buddy in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M in 1980 who was a serious Zappa fan. I had never heard of Zappa before that. Weirded me out. But I was a big fan of Jethro Tull. I just remember the song about moving to Montana to grow dental floss.
“I just remember the song about moving to Montana to grow dental floss.”
Peaches En Regalia
https://youtu.be/HFQKP3Ehucg
L
Tariffs have lost their sting.
By 2040, the entire world will be competing on the basis of industrial technology - not on the basis of their industrial workers.
Industrial employment has peaked in every developed country.
But, industrial production will continue to double about every 30 years.
Materially, human beings are entering the most prosperous period in history.
But, industrial employment will be slowly declining for the next century.
Stuff it globalist. You make me sick.
Fine Woodworking will still be sold:
To those who can use their hands and skills to make something beautiful; and to those that merely WISH they could.
LOL!
Realist.
USA industrial jobs are walking down the same road that USA farm jobs walked down 50 years ago.
USA industrial jobs peaked around 20%-25% of the work force between 1950 and 1980.
Current industrial work force - 12 million - about 8% of the total work force.
Productivity?
Those 12 million workers produce TWICE as much value as 20 million USA industrial workers produced in 1979!
Do not look back, central_va!
The modern world is right behind you!
I agree, Elsie.
As industrial technology improves each year, dedicated craft workers will be able to make all kinds of amazing and beautiful and useful things.
BTW the USA can't defend itself without an industrial base. And no, nuclear weapons are not going to protect us. Get your head out of Xi's butt.
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